Missin’ that homegrown bird

Homegrown turkeys have been a staple of the Frause Thanksgiving table over the years. Photo by Sue Frause.

Things won’t be quite as tasty at our Thanksgiving table this year.

Not that Chef Bob doesn’t do a fabulous job in the kitchen. But this year, the bird won’t measure up to years’ past.

After all, it’s store bought.

For the past 20 years, Farmer Bob has raised his own turkeys. Sometimes just a few, one year just shy of two dozen. Family and friends who scored made the turkey list, paying a paltry two bucks a pound to enjoy the best homegrown turkey this side of somewhere.

Last year’s model topped the scales at 43 pounds, a tie with a turkey circa 2001.. And these birds are mobile. Our neighbors down the lane, Jim and Paula Pugh, flew with their Frause Farm bird to the Bay Area several years ago.

They arrived on time, but the bird didn’t. Fortunately, the plucky frozen poultry eventually turned up at the airport, making the family meal complete.

In 2003 we flew with our bird in the overhead bin to spend Thanksgiving in New York City with our son. Read about that adventure by clicking HERE (look for a picture of Garfield flying high in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade).

One year we tied a big white table napkin around the neck of one of our turkeys and it made the front page of The South Whidbey Record.

Now that’s a cover bird.

But Farmer Bob needed a break. No turkeys this Thanksgiving. And yes, the customers squawked. Island gourmet cooks and entertainers Sandy Wainwright and Denise Whitmore won’t be ooh’ing and aah’ing about the yummy bird carved at their fabulous spread.

Craig Carty and Bob French, who used to help Farmer Bob in the annual turkey killing, will be dining on store bought birds, also.

So it was somewhat sad when Chef Bob bought an organic, free range turkey at the new Whole Foods in Seattle. She weighed in at 22 pounds, and was swaddled in white plastic emblazoned with Diestel Turkey Ranch of Sonora, California.

Not quite the same as the clear plastic bags that used to envelop our homegrown dinner.